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Print Media
Newspapers played an important role in campaigns by promoting a party's ticket and instilling party values over the long run. Editors could be rewarded with patronage and printing contracts for assisting the party cause. The number of newspapers grew exponentially over the 19th century; from 2,300 published in 1850 to 12,000 published in 1890. Most were highly partisan and contained large amounts of political news, especially during the campaign season. In the last quarter of the century, a few newspapers manifested a tendency toward editorial independence, but party affiliation remained the norm.

Among printed materials, the political cartoon had particular impact on the public. Political prints in America date back to colonial days, but cartoons did not become widespread until the Civil War era. Harper's Weekly published the inventive and influential work of Thomas Nast, along with a cadre of other talented cartoonists, such as Frank Bellew and A. B. Frost. Frank Leslie's carried the cartoons of Matt Morgan, while Joseph Keppler contributed his caricatures to Puck and Judge. By the 1884 campaign, cartoons flourished not only in weeklies and monthlies, but also in the daily newspapers.

Other printed campaign material included pamphlets, handbills, and candidate biographies. The parties also began producing a campaign manual which included the party platform, the presidential and vice-presidential nominees' letters of acceptance, biographical sketches of the candidates, relevant Congressional reports, major speeches by party leaders, the music and lyrics of campaign songs, political poems, and political jokes. The collection, coordination, and distribution of campaign literature was an important task of the party committees.

Source consulted: Robert J. Dinkin, Campaigning in America: A History of Election Practices.

Polling
Polling in the modern sense-of scientific voter samples representing the larger electorate-did not begin until the mid-20th century. A different kind of polling, arguably as accurate, took place in the 19th century. In districts and sometimes in entire states where a party was unsure of the election outcome, partisan pollsters would go door to door to survey every voter. Such polling practices were organizationally challenging and time consuming, but worth the effort in revealing where and how to distribute party resources.

Source consulted: Robert J. Dinkin, Campaigning in America: A History of Election Practices.

Women's role
Women could not vote in presidential elections until 1920, following ratification of the 19th Amendment. Yet their participation and influence was important in national campaigns beginning in 1840 when Whig managers encouraged women to play an active role in the campaign of William Henry Harrison. For the rest of the 19th century, women organized partisan picnics and teas, spearheaded letter-writing efforts, and attended rallies, speeches, and torchlight parades. The political parties enticed and rewarded female support with campaign memorabilia, such as ceramic ware, hairbrushes, bracelet charms, pendants, necklaces, and pin cushions. Political scholar Edith Mayo has even argued that the political parties targeted women more before they got the right to vote than afterward.

The public appearance and marketing of the wives of presidential candidates gradually became more accepted. In 1856 the image of Jessie Benton Frémont, the vivacious wife of Republican nominee John C. Frémont, was reproduced on a campaign medallion. In 1860 Adele Douglas traveled with her husband, Northern Democratic nominee Stephen Douglas, on his campaign tour and sat on the platform while he delivered speeches. Portraits of Lucy Hayes, wife of 1876 Republican nominee Rutherford B. Hayes, and Caroline Harrison, wife of 1888 Republican nominee Benjamin Harrison, appeared on campaign posters. Frances Folsom Cleveland, the young wife of President Grover Cleveland, was very popular during his 1888 reelection campaign. Her likeness appeared on numerous campaign items, including posters, handkerchiefs, plates, napkins, ribbons, and playing cards.

A few women became stump speakers during political campaigns. Anna Elizabeth Dickinson, a well-known reformer and public orator, campaigned for the Republicans during the 1860s. In 1872 Susan B. Anthony, a leading advocate of women's suffrage, attended all three political conventions -- Liberal Republican, Democratic, and Republican. After the Republicans included a platform plank (which Anthony described as a "splinter") calling for women's rights to "be treated with respectful consideration," she took to the campaign trail for President Ulysses Grant. It was the first time a major political party had included a platform plank specifically addressed to women. That November Anthony attempted to vote (arguing that the 14th Amendment sanctioned it), but she was arrested, released on bail, and fined $100. Also in 1872, Victoria Woodhull became the first woman to run and to be nominated for the presidency. Woodhull was a controversial promoter of women's rights, "free love," and spiritualism. She was nominated by the Equal Rights party.

Women had gained the right to vote in the Wyoming Territory in 1869 and the Utah Territory in 1870 (rescinded in 1887). In 1878, suffragists convinced Senator Aaron A. Sargent, Republican of California, to introduce a proposed Constitutional amendment allowing federal voting rights for women. It was introduced in each subsequent Congress until its passage over 40 years later. When Washington became a state in 1890, it was the only one that allowed voting rights to women. It was joined by Colorado in 1893, Idaho and Utah in 1896, Washington State in 1910, California in 1911, and Arizona, Kansas, and Oregon in 1912.

In August 1912, Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive Party became the first major political party to endorse women’s suffrage. The party also offered women an unprecedented opportunity to serve in a major partisan organization. Three women—Jane Addams, Frances Kellor, and Isabella Blaney—were members at large of the Progressive National Committee. They were the first women to serve on the executive board of a major political party. Another woman, Alice Carpenter, served on the Platform Committee, and the party’s official records list 16 delegates and five alternates who were women. Addams delivered one of the speeches seconding Roosevelt’s nomination for president. It was the first time that a woman had addressed a major party convention. During the post-convention campaign, women gave speeches, press interviews, and published pamphlets for the Progressive Party.

Women gained the right to vote in Illinois and the Alaska Territory in 1913 and in Montana and Nevada the following year. In 1916, Jeannette Rankin, a Montana Republican, became the first woman elected to Congress. The next year seven states granted women’s suffrage, and in 1919 Congress finally passed the 19th Amendment. Upon ratification by a three-quarters majority of states the following year it became part of the U.S. Constitution, allowing women to vote in a presidential election for the first time in 1920.

Sources consulted: Paul F. Boller Jr., Presidential Campaigns; Robert J. Dinkin, Campaigning in America: A History of Election Practices; Roger A. Fischer, Tippecanoe and Trinket Too: The Material Culture of American Presidential Campaigns, 1828-1984; Keith Melder, Hail to the Candidate: Presidential Campaigns from Banners to Broadcasts; Susan Kullmann Puz, "Victoria C. Woodhull: The First Woman to Run for President," Legal Contender Website <<http://class.csupomona.edu/ms/skpuz/hst202/Woodhull.Wqart.html>> (originally appeared in The Women's Quarterly).

 
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